Review: 'Aesop's Fables' good for young, young at heart

Totem Pole, Gettysburg theaters team up for free shows

"Aesop's Fables" is running on select Saturdays this summer at the Totem Pole Playhouse in Fayetteville. (T.W. Burger — For Public Opinion)

FAYETTEVILLE &GT;&GT; The boy of 5 or 6 just could not contain himself. He leapt out of his seat on the front row at Totem Pole Playhouse, cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled: "Behind you!"

This is not a spoiler, so we won't say who was behind whom, but at least a dozen of the 100 or so children in the theater were yelling the same thing during the Totem Pole/Gettysburg Community Theater children's production of "Aesop's Fables."

Two great things: One, don't worry if you missed the performance Saturday — there will be more. Plus, all the performances are free, thanks to full sponsorship by Adams Electric Cooperative.

(The next performances will be at Totem Pole Playhouse at 10 a.m. on July 12, 26, and Aug. 9. Once again, they are all free of charge.

For the adults in the audience, none of the stories were really new. But then, Aesop's Fables never really get old, either. During a Q&A after the half-hour performance, several youngsters asked how they could get to be actors, too.

Chad-Alan Carr, who may be the busiest man in show business, certainly in these parts, said the collaborative efforts came about as the result of some conversations he had earlier this season at the Totem Pole Awards event. The two theater companies will be collaborating at several levels, including sharing one another's costumes and props. Carr is the Founding Executive/Artistic Director of Gettysburg Community Theatre.

The GCT director said it has been "very fun" working with the Totem Pole folks and his own students.

"GCT is honored to be a partner in the arts with Totem Pole Playhouse, and be asked to have our students work with the great team of professional actors and crew at Totem Pole and to be on the same stage that so many legendary professional actors of days gone by have performed to so many people for decades," he said.

Carr's production of Aesop's Fables and includes the stories of "The Fox and the Crow," "The Tortoise And The Hare," "The Donkey In The Lion Skin" and "The Fox And The Sour Grapes"

"It was fun, said 11-year-old Madeline Nevada. She lives with her family in nearby Orrtanna, in Adams County. "I liked hearing Aesop's Fables re-enacted like that. Plus, they were short, so they didn't take so long."

The entire show only took 30 minutess or so, not including the Q&A session, for which most of the kids stuck around.

The playhouse is in Caledonia State Park between Chambersburg and Gettysburg, at 9555 Golf Course Road in Fayetteville.

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